


La Sensa

by Philosophizes



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Deanon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 08:46:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/951086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philosophizes/pseuds/Philosophizes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deanon off Dreamwidth for the prompt 'Nations interacting with mythological beings and deities'.</p>
<p>There is only one King of the Seas</p>
            </blockquote>





	La Sensa

She lived under the Lagoon; and never came up.  
  
He saw her servants around often- in the puddles on the Berlin roads after a rainstorm, peering up at him from under the pylons of Venetian walkways, curling languidly around the sides of boats on the Thames, in the spray of Niagara Falls, hissing up from the thermal pools Japan took him to and staring from the bottom of Canada’s cabin well. They washed up in the foam on the beaches of Cote d’Azure, whispering to him as they were dragged back out to sea by the tide; and their screaming calls hid with seagulls and car horns in Hong Kong as their images refracted across glass skyscrapers.   
  
The condensation on an ice water glass, sitting in the Jerusalem or New Dehli or Paramaribo sun would bead onto his skin and run down his hands and under the cuffs of his dress shirt and he would be reminded of her touch, cool and soothing; and he would be distracted, staring off across the water or up at the sky, watching the tides and the clouds dance to her orders, for the rest of the day.  
  
And Israel or India or Suriname would look at him and ask if he was alright, or what he was thinking about, or say Germany is right, you’re horrible at paying attention.  
  
Inside silently he would laugh and laugh and laugh at Spain and England and China and America and all the rest, all those who had dared claim rulership of the seas because what were boats and ships compared to the vast expanse of water? What were human things of wood and metal, made to rot and rust; to the beauty and power of something simultaneously miniscule enough to bond atoms together and massive enough to cover three-quarters of the planet; that straddled the fine line of vitalizing and murderous, one and the same, always?  
  
His mind would wander, and he would while away the day dreaming of returning home, leaving his shoes in the house and running, straight off the end of his dock, diving into the canals and twisting and looping around gondolas and speedboats and freighter ships out into the lagoon and going down, down into the dark and the cold and touching bottom, silt clouding around his feet, and he would walk weightless into the stone grotto strung with a thousand and more years of golden promises and finger the strands as he walked through their curtain and kiss the hand of the woman on the throne-  
  
And he would smile, all teeth, in a way he hadn’t since he himself had been a naval power, at these thoughts, because maybe Spain had conquered the New World and maybe England once had the greatest navy anyone had ever seen and maybe China had cowed lesser Nations and their kings with sailing behemoths and maybe America could be on any coastline anywhere within a few hours but the Queen of All Waters had only one King, wed and titled anew every year in pageantry and festivity on the Lagoon.  
  
One holy marriage to bind land and sea, only one King who cared enough to come to the Queen himself, in her element, under her power; not hover uselessly, fearfully near the surface and make empty boasts of power.  
  
Feliciano Vargas, Repubblica italiana, veneziano, was the King of the Queen of All Waters, and the Queen would suffer no pretenders to her affections.

**Author's Note:**

> Every year on the Sunday after Ascension Day in Venice, citizens of the city accompany Venetian officials and the Patriarch of Venice on their sail out into the lagoon, where a gold ring is blessed and thrown into the water, marrying the city to the sea. Sposalizio del Mare has occurred annually since 998.


End file.
